It has been a long while since I last posted a Blog, as my work and family commitments have been set on warp speed.
So much to talk about these days in the Church's Liturgy as we come toward the end of Lent and the beginning of those 'days of awe' that we call Holy Week.
I will venture a few random thoughts.
Divine Sign-language
Yesterday at Mass the divine Word proclaimed in St. John's Gospel presented to our mind's eye that sixth 'sign' performed by Jesus before his Passion: the raising of Lazarus from the dead. In John's Gospel, all of the seven signs Jesus 'performs' in one way or another manifest the source, meaning and power of those two primal sacraments of initiation: Baptism and Eucharist. Take a gander.
1. Changing Water Into Wine (John 2:1-11)
2. Healing the Royal Official's Son (John 4:46-54)
3. Healing the paralytic at the pool (John 5:1-18)
4. Feeding over 5,000 with fish and loaves (John 6:1-14)
5. Healing a man born blind (John 9:1-41)
6. Raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-46)
7. Flowing blood and water coming from Jesus' open side (John 19:33-35)
The verbs that accompany each sign offer an insight into the life-giving dynamism of those two sacraments, and the narratives in which those signs are embedded burgeon with insight and meaning into the existential flavor of what a living encounter with Christ looks, sounds, feels, tastes, smells like.
In fact, one can read John's entire Gospel as an extended meditation on Baptism and Eucharist as the principle means of coming into koinonia with the risen Christ - koinonia being that rich Greek word that means something like communion, or a common-sharing of all of one's life and goods with another.
Baptismal Blooms
In Baptism we were entombed in a watery grave with Christ, only to be at once raised up again with Christ to new life. The rest of our life is to be an extended commentary on that single sacramental event, an unfolding of the tightly wrapped rose-bud that grace plants within us in Baptism.
The world will be saved only by the beauty we allow to bloom within us.
I See
I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.
I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.
All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.
- Joseph Mary Plunkett
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The wrapping of ourselves in the risen Christ is to be looked forward to during Holy Week as we walk in the trenches in the suffering of our Lord. We are surrounded during the suffering/wanting of others during the readings of Lent. The hungry (feeding of the 5,000), the unwanted (the Blind Man) and the hurting (the paralytic) all demonstrate the needs of our world today – needs that only Christ can fulfill in entirety.
ReplyDeleteIndeed Lent is as much about cleaning our own spiritual house as it is about reaching out to others. The communion we are supposed to share isn’t always the communion we experience in the world. Baptism and Eucharist allow us to share in the Heavenly Father’s communion and in doing so we can reflect to the world what it needs to experience through the senses hopefully to assist in stirring faith within their hearts.
Experiencing Jesus can be difficult with distractions and busyness. Our hearts forget to be full of wonder at the world which is shouting his name – our ears cannot hear above the din. The moments that we see and hear the clearest are the moments to embrace, so we might recall the wonderful power of Baptism and Eucharist for enrichment in our own lives and to build community with others.
Absolutely spot on, beads2rosaries. And I know you know this from the inside out, for many years!
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